László Andor, the European commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion, who published two proposals for legislation yesterday (21 March), was immediately accused by socialists and trade unionists of undermining workers’ rights to strike.

The main thrust of the Commission’s proposal is an EU-wide law to improve the enforcement of a 1996 law on the posting of workers from one EU member state to work in another. This posting-of-workers law became highly controversial shortly after the 2004 enlargement of the EU, with trade unions complaining that companies are using it to undermine pay and conditions. They accused companies of posting workers from central and eastern Europe to work in western Europe on lower levels of pay and social protection.

Businesses, on the other hand, said that posting workers abroad was an essential element of providing services throughout the EU, one of the freedoms of the single market.

The Commission argues that there is nothing wrong with the existing posting-of-workers law, which is meant to ensure minimum levels of social protection in the host countries. But the new proposal is supposed to improve enforcement, setting standards for information to workers and companies about their rights and obligations, clarifying what constitutes posting, so as to prevent the use of ‘letterbox’ companies, setting out the responsibilities for inspections and controls. There are specific proposals for the construction sector to make a company that uses a sub-contractor liable for paying the wages of workers employed by the sub-contractors in the event that the sub-contracting company goes bust.

The proposals also aim to take account of rulings from the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In the 2007 Laval un Patneri case, Swedish trade unions picketed buildings where a Latvian building company had brought in Latvian workers. The ECJ upheld the right of the company to provide services.

Andor’s second legislative proposal is for a regulation that asserts that “the exercise of the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services enshrined in the treaty shall respect the fundamental right to take collective action, including the right or freedom to strike, and conversely, the exercise of the fundamental right to take collective action, including the right or freedom to strike, shall respect these economic freedoms”.

Andor said the proposals would put workers’ rights and their freedom to strike “on an equal footing” with the EU’s internal market rules. “This will help to defuse industrial conflicts,” he said.

A joint statement issued by Stephen Hughes, a UK Socialist MEP, and Alejandro Cercas, a Spanish MEP, said: “As it stands, the Commission’s proposal does not solve the problem of social dumping in Europe. If adopted, it would undermine the right to strike in the EU and other collective rights.

“If the text is not changed, the S&D group will have no other choice but to reject it.”

Philippe de Buck, the director-general of BusinessEurope, the European employers’ organisation, said he was concerned the plan for increased monitoring would lead to excessive red-tape for companies. “Developing the single market will not happen if companies operating across borders are obliged to fulfil costly administrative requirements,” he said.

Malcolm Harbour, a UK Conservative MEP and chairman of the Parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee, welcomed the proposal but said he hoped that it would not pose extra hurdles for businesses or impede the implementation of existing rules.

MEPs on the employment committee will hold a first discussion on the proposal during their plenary session in Strasbourg in April. The EU’s employment ministers will debate them at an informal meeting in Copenhagen on 23-25 April.